Scrap Bustin' Cat Toys

What do you get when you combine boob pads from swimsuits, seam scraps and catnip?  Mice!

I've been holding on the the boob pads from my swimsuits for awhile, for some unknown reason.  I remove them as soon as I get a new suit.  Who wants soggy boobs at the beach?  Not me.

Soggy offenders.

I saw a tutorial awhile back for making mice out of shoulder pads, and thought, "finally, those boob pads can have a second life making cats crazy."

Scraps from cutting seams out of other projects, now known as, "mouse tails".

 I pinned up the sides of a boob pad, stuffed a tail inside and sewed around the edges, leaving an opening to turn the mouse right side out and stuff catnip inside.

Little mouse with a hole in front

Fresh catnip.

 After stuffing the little mouse full of catnip, I did a zig zag stitch around the edge and gave him an eyeball.

One down, fifty to go.  We don't have cats, as I'm allergic (much to the princess's dismay), so the local Humane Society will be getting a donation of MICE!  Gotta keep those shelter kitties crazy!

Where Old Swimsuits Go To Die, Hair Ties

Today I went through the donation/garage sale bags and closets.  Ugh, it's amazing how much the princess has grown in the 2 years we've been living here.  Also amazing is the number of destroyed swimsuits.  Between the sunscreen, salt water, chlorine, heat and humidity; anything that has elastic or Lycra, rots.  Fast.  So today, I made hair ties and a headband out of old swimsuits.  I found the idea here.  This gal's swimsuit was clearly not as destroyed as what I was working with.

2 little bikinis and 2 one pieces, courtesy of la nena.

All of these suits were pretty baggy, and the elastic around the edges was sticky or crunchy.  The gal in the link above just cut and tied a single piece, which wasn't going to work with these suits.  So I braided 3 strips together, sewed up the ends, tied another scrap around the sewing mess, and...

Ponytail and bun ties galore.

Pay no attention to the greasy hair.  It's hot, ok?

Super easy and fun little project!  I love not throwing things away!  I recently read (somewhere) that 5% of all landfill waste in the US is from textiles.  That's a lot of fabric.  Almost 68 POUNDS per US household per year.  I'm feeling pretty good about keeping these otherwise useless swimsuits out of the dump. 

Thanks for stopping by!